Today, Mothering Sunday and Mother’s Day appear as one and the same, but history would disagree. It is true that, in more recent times, these events have influenced each other and seem to have morphed into one, but their roots spring from vastly different places.
In the UK, the origins of Mothering Sunday go back to the Middle Ages and the biblical text read during church services held on the fourth Sunday of the Christian festival of Lent. Over in the US, the first Mother’s Day was organised by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and now takes place on the second Sunday in May.
Medieval origins
The fourth Sunday in Lent was traditionally called Laetare Sunday, or Mid-Lent Sunday or even Refreshment Sunday, a day set aside in the medieval church calendar, when the strict rules of fasting were temporarily relaxed and mother churches were honoured.
On that day it was common practice for people to make a pilgrimage to their mother church – their local cathedral, parish church or church where they had been baptised – to attend a special service.
The Bible passages that were assigned for this service included references to mothers and metaphors for mothers and the Gospel for the day was typically John 6:1-14, the story of the feeding of the five thousand which introduced the connection between mothering and the gifts of Mother Earth.
This was an important annual ritual, but it would be wrong to suggest it was always a peaceful or unifying occasion. Unruly behaviour was, apparently, not unusual. Sources suggest that a 13th century bishop threatened to punish rival groups who were fighting over whose banner should go first in the procession into Lincoln Cathedral.
Changes in early modern Britain
Brawling in the streets was, obviously, not going to be tolerated for long and, over the years, the celebration changed, along with the country’s politics, religion and economy. Christians continued to return to their mother churches on Laetare Sunday and from 1644 anyone who did this was said to have gone ‘mothering’, but to ‘go-a-mothering’ had a new social significance.
From the 17th century, children as young as ten years old could be sent away to work, but on this particular Sunday in Lent they had the opportunity to return home to visit both their families and their mother church – they called it Mothering Sunday.
Tradition has it that the live-in apprentices and domestic servants, who were given the day off work and made the journey home, picked flowers from the hedgerows as they went to present to their mothers or their mother church. They also took the opportunity presented by the reprieve from fasting (linked to Gospel of the day: John 6:1-14 where Jesus feeds a multitude with bread and fish) to make gifts of cakes, buns and pies to their parents.
All these things gave the day the air of a holiday, but for many it also fulfilled a practical purpose: in early Spring when there was a shortage of fresh produce and winter food stores were running low, the return of children carrying gifts of food, meant that parents could bridge the, so-called, ‘hungry-gap’.
20th century revival
Mothering Sunday in the UK had gone out of fashion by the early 20th century, but in America the idea of Mother’s Day was just taking hold. In 1908, Ann Maria Jarvis started a campaign for a day dedicated to honouring mothers and in 1914, with the support of President Woodrow Wilson, Mother’s Day became a US national holiday, celebrated on the second Sunday in May.
Reacting to Jarvis’s efforts in the US, Constance Adelaide Smith determined to revive the holiday in Britain. Although inspired by the US version of Mother’s Day, her aim was not to copy, but to initiate the modern observance of Mothering Sunday which would celebrate motherhood in all its forms (“mothers of earthly homes”, the Virgin Mary – mother of Jesus, Mother Nature). In 1913 she created the Mothering Sunday Movement and, through both her campaigning and writing, the celebration gained public acceptance.
Whilst Mothering Sunday was re-establishing itself in the UK, back in America, Jarvis was having a change of heart; she had become disillusioned and resentful of the commercial takeover of ‘her’ national festival. She denounced the holiday and filed lawsuits against companies that used the name, ‘Mother’s Day’, but the genie was out of the bottle. The American people had come to wholeheartedly embrace the vision of the day as promoted by the florists and the confectionery and greetings card companies.
Unsurprisingly, this trend soon found its way across the Atlantic. The arrival of American troops during WWII, with their ideas of a commercial and secular Mother’s Day, further influenced British views on the celebration and increased its popularity.
And here we are today. The celebration has, undoubtedly, evolved over the years, but on the fourth Sunday in Lent we continue to recognise the importance of those who love and care for us.
Happy Mothering Sunday!
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